This invention pertains to food products and processes, particularly those made from fruit products including whole fruits and selected normally non-edible portions.
In the fruit processing industry, substantial portions of fruit parts and substantial quantities of "cull" fruits are discarded as waste by-products. Examples of such waste by-products include the "cups" of citrus fruits, plus whole citrus residual solids; the skin and core of pineapple; whole banana, including peel, and stalks, ripe, over-ripe and immature "green" bananas; mango skin and seeds; and papaya skin and seeds. The lack of existing food processes or formulations or other applications for these by-products results in little utilization of these by-products. For some of these by-products, such as citrus fruit and pineapple centrifuge underflow, disposal of the liquid and semisolid by-products without contributing to pollution is a problem. Nevertheless, these by-products, such as fruit skins, pith, and seeds have higher nutritional properties, including higher available amino acids, minerals, fiber, and vitamin content, than the normally regarded edible portions.
These products are generally overlooked for human food products because they lack agreeable taste and texture. Orange and other citrus peels have been little used, for humanly edible foods, with minor exceptions such as in candied peel and marmalade. With food shortages imminent as world population continues to explode, discarding these by-products is a waste of natural resources.
The primary disagreeable bitterness in citrus solids is believed to result from the bitterness of a substance known as d-limonin. Nullifying the bitter effects of d-limonin would contribute to greater use of the entire citrus fruit.
Therefore, there is a need for a method for preparing palatable and edible food products for human consumption from those portions of fruit which are normally discarded because they are non-palatable and/or regarded non-edible.